Pipe Dreams

There have never been more options for faster Web access and never more reasons for needing it: Think more advanced multimedia, quicker e-commerce, and speedier telecommuting. We examine the technologies that offer always-on, higher bandwidth and test them for speed and service.

There have never been more options for faster Web access and never more reasons for needing it: Think more advanced multimedia, quicker e-commerce, and speedier telecommuting. We examine the technologies that offer always-on, higher bandwidth and test them for speed and service. Our evaluations tell you which ones live up to their promise.

David Baylor is exactly the kind of customer broadband Internet service providers strive to attract. The 32-year-old computer consultant, who works out of his home in Waukesha, Wisconsin, knows what he wants from a Web experience, and he's certain that it isn't what he had before. So about a year ago, Baylor dropped his dial-up Internet service provider (ISP) in favor of the relatively new digital subscriber line (DSL) service offered by Seattle-based Speakeasy.

"I switched to DSL primarily to have an always-on connection," says Baylor.

Justifying the cost was easy. "I pay about $50 a month for DSL. With a dial-up account I was paying $20 for the ISP, plus $12 for the extra phone line."

Such simple logic is echoed by many these days. The buzz surrounding high-speed Internet servicesprimarily DSL, from phone companies and regional start-ups such as Speakeasy, and competing cable-modem service offered by cable TV carriershas reached a fever pitch.

Everyone Wants It

The reasons are obvious. Broadband Internet service in many cases is "always-on," meaning you don't have to dial in to your ISP's server and wait for a connection (and potentially not get one during peak times). Just launch your browser and you're there.

But the real allure for many is the speed. Cable and DSL connections generally deliver an average minimum of around 150 Kbps (kilobits per second) and an average max of around 1 Mbps for cable and 2 Mbps for DSL, versus the theoretical maximum of 53.3 Kbps for dial-up Internet service. The extra speed not only makes Web page download seemingly instantly (a huge benefit in itself), but it also enables subscribers to use the Web for things that are impractical over a regular phone connection: streaming audio and video, virtual private networks (VPNs), extranets, and more. Broadband's fat pipe also makes it practical for a small business or home users to share a single connection and ISP account among several PCsa prospect that would bring a dial-up connection to its knees.

The number of high-speed lines connecting homes and small businesses in the U.S. to the Net reached 4.3 million in the first half of 2000, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Even so, that accounts for only 3 percent of the nation's total homes and businesses.

Not Everyone Can Get It

While a majority of people would switch to broadband service tomorrow given the chance, the unhappy truth is that most U.S. homes and businesses don't have that choice. Though about two-thirds of American households have access to cable television services, only about one-third of those are served by the two-way cable needed to deliver high-speed Internet services, according to Zona Research of Redwood City, California.

What's the holdup? Simply put, DSL and cable-modem service suppliers need time and money to upgrade the infrastructure as required by broadband.

The copper loops that connect most American households to local telephone central office (CO) switches were not designed for data traffic, particularly high-speed data traffic. Many of these copper wires require upgrading before DSL suppliers can begin force-feeding high-speed data to their customers. Some of these loops have been unused for 50 years, and others are equipped with electronics designed for efficient voice communications. But the electronics that enhance voice communications are murder on data transmission (microfilters installed to eliminate noise or hiss on voice lines disrupt frequencies used for data).

Cable service providers are also having a difficult time. The cable infrastructure was designed for one-way television programming communicationsthat is, from the programmers to the consumer. Internet communications require two-way service.

"We are working as fast as we can, but we aren't completely there yet," says Steve Gorman, director of marketing for residential data services at Cox Communications, an Atlanta-based cable television and broadband supplier that serves 6 million customers in 23 states nationwide. "By the end of the year we will be upgraded to 70 percent two-way-capable," he says.

For those not inclined to waitand for those in rural areas that may never get wired broadband servicethere are alternatives. Hughes and StarBand each provide high-speed Internet access via satellite, and more competitors are joining them. There's also WLL (wireless local loop) service delivered by a range of local competitors. With WLL, a provider blankets an area with transceivers that pass the data signals via radio waves to a small antenna at each customer site.

Broadband In Business

For companies especially, the case for getting broadband serviceany way they canis compelling.

An example is Glendora, California-based ChecKing Check Cashing Centers, which recently switched from dial-up Internet service to DSL for tracking customer records and rooting out scammers.

"Our reason was mostly cost," says Harry Clouse, ChecKing's CFO. Before DSL, each ChecKing location had several dial-up accounts, each with its own phone line. By consolidating these accounts in each of its branch offices into shared high-speed connections, ChecKing saved $200 per office per monthand got faster service to boot. "With 13 locations, that's $30,000 a year," says Clouse. "For a small business, that's significant."

But for ChecKing, switching to DSL also meant going from the familiar dial-up data and voice service delivery of a traditional telephone company to Mpower Communications, a relatively unknown DSL ISP. Start-up Mpower, a mere four years old, is based in Rochester, New Yorka city almost as far away from Glendora as one can get without leaving the country.

"Needless to say, we had concerns about quality and reliability," says Clouse. "We had heard about the benefits of DSL, but we had also heard some of DSL's horror stories."

Indeed, horror stories abound. Since demand for broadband far outstripped the ability of providers to deliver it, long waits for installation were (and in many areas still are) the norm. Often, customer service personnel at the cable and telephone companies were ill-informed about the new service, and many would-be customers couldn't find out whether broadband was even available to them. Worse, broadband service is often sold through third-party providers, which lease the lines from cable or phone companies. This has led to miscommunication about which organization is responsible for whatand plenty of finger-pointing when things go wrong.

For ChecKing, the switch worked wellat least, for the most part. "The good news is that we got all of our offices on our DSL network," says Clouse. "The bad news is it took a few months to get it all done."

Slings And Arrows

For Shakespeare & Co., access to broadband service meant more than saving money; it was a matter of survival. The New York bookseller is surrounded by superstores such as Barnes & Noble and Borders, whose economies of scale have driven small booksellers out of the market.

Shakespeare has navigated this difficult business environment by seeking out ever-narrower market niches to escape the unrelenting price competition in an industry notorious for its thin margins.

To keep essential information flowing among its five locations, Shakespeare first turned to Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) for fast-speed ISDN service.

"Our ISDN performance was sporadic," reports co-owner Bill Spath. He says the phone company assigned Shakespeare's network ID number to another company, which would cut Shakespeare stores off from the network. "Many times we had no service, and it took Bell Atlantic weeks to figure out the problem."

This was unacceptable. "The network is critical to us," Spath says. "So when we had the opportunity to switch to a DSL virtual private network, we did."

Shakespeare hired Public Access Network Corp., a New York City-based ISP, to install and manage the bookseller's DSL. Shakespeare's entire network now runs on DSL. This high-speed link between Shakespeare's stores and its central computer enables the company, among other things, to follow sales trends closely and restock on the fly when inventory is low. "For us, DSL was a good experienceunlike ISDN," says Spath.

If a program changes at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, for instance, Shakespeare can fill its shelves with books that match the subject of the new program by getting the word out over its network.

There's probably no need to convince anyone that broadband is in his futureor present. But knowing which alternative to chooseif you have a choiceis critical. We gave 800 evaluators and a team of journalists the task of providing answers to this. The reviews and stories that follow break down the options, evaluate performance, dissect the advantages and disadvantages, and provide insight into the key steps to create a successful broadband experience.

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you instruct us otherwise. Your subscription will automatically renew at the end of the term unless you authorize
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